High throughput parking system

ABSTRACT

A vehicle parking method uses a multilevel building structure with plural floors, including an entry-exit floor with reception and discharge parking spaces, and storage floors with storage parking spaces for parking plural inbound motor vehicles; and an elevator having elevator spaces, the elevator adapted for moving between the floors of the building structure, and a plurality of inbound and outbound vehicle movers, each of the movers adapted for supporting and moving one of the vehicles between the floors of the building structure using the elevator. The method includes parking inbound vehicles in reception parking spaces on the entry-exit floor of the building structure; loading the inbound vehicles onto inbound movers; moving the elevator to the entry-exit floor of the building structure; loading the loaded inbound movers into said elevator spaces on the elevator; moving the elevator incrementally to the storage floors of the building structure for matching the inbound vehicles with vacant storage spaces on the storage floors; discharging inbound movers to the storage floors and unloading the inbound vehicles into the vacant storage spaces; loading all vacated elevator spaces with outbound movers carrying outbound vehicles from the storage floors; moving the elevator, to complete one inbound-outbound cycle, finally, to the entry-exit floor and discharging the outbound movers; unloading the outbound vehicles to discharge parking spaces on the entry-exit floor to await possession by patrons; and then repeating this cycle as required.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims priority and is entitled to the filingdate of U.S. Provisional application Ser. No. 60/308,059 filed Jul. 26,2001, and entitled “Bonin Vehicle Parking System” The content of theaforementioned application is incorporated by reference herein.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

[0002] Applicant(s) hereby incorporate herein by reference, any and allU.S. patents, U.S. patent applications, and other documents and printedmatter cited or referred to in this application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] 1. Field of the Invention

[0004] This invention relates generally to automobile parking structuresand more particularly to a parking structure and system capable ofeconomically accommodating a high throughput rate of vehicles.

[0005] 2. Description of Related Art

[0006] Automated, multi-level storage structures have been designed tomore efficiently manage the storing and rapid retrieval of automobiles.Many such prior art devices teach a system whereby movable pallets orplatforms accept and move such vehicles by various means such aselevator lifts, and the like, to a final storage destination. Thesestorage systems may have many levels.

[0007] Examples of such prior art devices are found in:

[0008] U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,718 describes a multi-storied garage that ischaracterized in that a single lift cage is capable of serving aplurality of motor vehicle storage chambers located at a plurality offloor levels, and that appropriate means are provided for holding inposition the motor vehicles to be stored in the storage chambers,whereby the motor vehicles can with the utmost safety be let into, keptin, and got out of, the garage.

[0009] Go, U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,117 describes a lift-space andmulti-storied housing spaces providing on at least one side out of theleft side, right side, front side, and rear side of the lift space. Athree dimensional housing apparatus comprises a liftable fork unitcomposed of a pair of liftable forks movable up and down in the liftspace, and a plurality of traversable housing forks each reciprocatinglymovable between a corresponding housing space and the lift space. Anobject to be housed can speedily and safely be warehoused in anddelivered from a respective housing space by the liftable fork unit anda respective traversable housing fork.

[0010] Shahar, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,571 describes an automaticmulti-level storage structure including a building structure having atleast one entrance and exit station, a main floor directly accessiblefrom the entrance station, and a plurality of storage levels, aplurality of object pallets provided with wheels and adapted to carryobjects to be stored. The pallets are movable along, and guide by, afirst track fixedly attached to the floor of the levels. There is alsoprovided at least one storage elevator adapted to accommodate the objectpallets and to move between the main floor and the plurality of storagelevels, and transfer platforms permanently located in the elevator andprovided with a second track fixedly attached to the platform. Thesecond track is adapted to accept and guide the wheels of the objectpallet, and is furnished with a driver for moving the object pallet ontoand off of the transfer platform.

[0011] Trevisani, U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,027 describes an undergroundcircular and noncircular, parking place where vehicle parking areas areobtained and arranged radius-like on several underground stories.Vehicles are fed to the areas by a lift truck which moves verticallyfrom ground story to the lower story and simultaneously rotates around avertical axis together with the whole bearing column, to reach allparking areas; on ground story the lift truck is a continuity elementwith an incoming and an outgoing area; the lift truck consists of aplatform on which an upper plane moves in two opposite directions, theplane has two pairs of chains abreast equipped with staves for motorcarsupporting and hooking lists to avoid sliding; the ends of the plane areequipped with a mechanism for engaging with a corresponding mechanism inground areas and underground spaces; the areas and spaces are alsoequipped with pairs of chains abreast and staves for motorcar support; afirst motor for moving the plane in the two directions with respect tothe platform are assembled and a second motor for rotating the chains ofthe plane and the chains of the parking area or underground space towhich the plane is temporarily connected.

[0012] A drawback with the prior art systems that use movable pallets,such as disclosed in Shahar et al., is that the transport time requiredto either store or retrieve an object is relatively long, due mostly tothe fact that other pallets, either empty or full, must be moved out ofthe way to make room for the object pallet. Such systems further requirea convenient staging area near the loading area for holding emptypallets. As a result, as a pallet is loaded and sent to its destination,the elevator must deliver that pallet to the proper level, perhapswaiting for other pallets on that level to be shifted so as to make roomfor the new pallet, then return to the staging area to pick-up an emptypallet, and finally return to the loading area to pick-up the nextobject. Such a system clearly has significant delays, and thereforerequires multiple elevators in order to avoid such delays.

[0013] Clearly, then, there is a need for a multi-level parking facilitythat is more efficient both in its initial cost of construction and inits cost of operation. Such a needed facility would be easily controlledby a computer system, and would not require full-time parking attendantsfor operation. The present invention fulfills these needs and providesfurther related advantages by loading and unloading the elevatorsimultaneously, by loading and unloading a plurality of vehiclessimultaneously, and by automating the use of pallets so that the vehicleis delivered to its storage space while withdrawing the vehicle mover,so that only a limited number of vehicle movers are required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0014] The present invention teaches certain benefits in constructionand use which give rise to the objectives described below.

[0015] The present vehicle parking method uses a multilevel buildingstructure with plural floors, including an entry-exit floor withreception and discharge parking spaces, and storage floors with storageparking spaces for parking plural inbound motor vehicles; and anelevator having elevator spaces, the elevator adapted for moving betweenthe floors of the building structure, and a plurality of inbound andoutbound vehicle movers, each of the movers adapted for supporting andmoving one of the vehicles between the floors of the building structureusing the elevator. The method includes parking inbound vehicles inreception parking spaces on the entry-exit floor of the buildingstructure; loading the inbound vehicles onto inbound movers; moving theelevator to the entry-exit floor of the building structure; loading theloaded inbound movers into said elevator spaces on the elevator; movingthe elevator incrementally to the storage floors of the buildingstructure for matching the inbound vehicles with vacant storage spaceson the storage floors; discharging inbound movers to the storage floorsand unloading the inbound vehicles into the vacant storage spaces;loading all vacated elevator spaces with outbound movers carryingoutbound vehicles from the storage floors; moving the elevator, tocomplete one inbound-outbound cycle, finally, to the entry-exit floorand discharging the outbound movers; unloading the outbound vehicles todischarge parking spaces on the entry-exit floor to await possession bypatrons; and then repeating this cycle as required.

[0016] A primary objective of the present invention is to provide anapparatus and method of use of such apparatus that provides advantagesnot taught by the prior art.

[0017] Another objective is to provide such an invention capable ofeconomically, and efficiently parking a high volume of vehicles whenhigh throughput is required.

[0018] A further objective is to provide such an invention capable offully automated operation.

[0019] A still further objective is to provide such an invention capableof parking and retrieving vehicles for patrons with minimum waitingtime.

[0020] Other features and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent from the following more detailed description, taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way ofexample, the principles of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] The accompanying drawings illustrate the present invention. Insuch drawings:

[0022]FIG. 1 is a plan view of the preferred embodiment of the inventionillustrating a entry-exit floor of a parking structure of the invention;

[0023]FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof illustrating a typical storage floorof the parking structure;

[0024]FIG. 3 is a side elevational view thereof showing a vehicle moverof the type that may be used for moving vehicles according to theinvention; and

[0025]FIG. 4 is an end elevational view thereof showing the vehiclemover in both the jacked-up mode on the left and the lowered mode on theright.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0026] The above described drawing figures illustrate the invention inat least one of its preferred embodiments, which is further defined indetail in the following description.

[0027] The present invention is a vehicle parking facility apparatushoused in a multilevel building structure 10 with plural floors forparking plural motor vehicles 30, including at least one entry-exitfloor 20 (FIG. 1) having vehicle reception and dispatch parking spaces22, for receiving vehicles moving into and out of the building structure10. A plurality of vehicle movers 40, are adapted for supporting andmoving one of the vehicles 30 along the floors of the building structureto and from parking spaces 22. At least one elevator 50 is large enoughto receive plural of the vehicle movers 40 in abreast formation alongeach of four sides 50′ thereof. The elevator thereby is adapted formoving the vehicles 30 between the entry-exit floor 20 to parking spaces22 on the parking floors 60 of the building structure, as shown in FIG.2. An automated guidance system for directing the vehicle moversautomatically, with or without personnel attention, may be used betweenthe parking spaces 22 and the elevator 50. Such a system may be of anywell known type such as the guidance of the vehicle movers 40 alongburied electrical cables 5 and wherein the movers 40 are self propelledas by electrical motors 42. Such guidance systems and control thereforeare within the routine know-how of those of skill in the art. As shownin FIGS. 3 and 4, it is shown that the vehicle mover 40 provides rollers44 that are hydraulically moved into place to lift the vehicle 30 fromthe ground, shown at the right in FIG. 4, to the level for moving thevehicle 30 shown at the left in FIG. 4 and in FIG. 3. Upon reaching theparking space 22, the vehicle mover 40 moves into the parking space 22and then lowers the vehicle 30 to the ground, i.e., the lifting rollers46, which are used to lift and lower the vehicle 30, move away from thevehicle's wheels to position 46′ for instance. This allows the mover 40to extract itself from under the vehicle 30 and to then be available forthe next vehicle while the parked vehicle remains in place in itsparking space 22 without the mover 40. This ability provides asignificant advantage over the prior art devices in requiring only avery limited number of movers for handling a large number of vehicles.

[0028] The method of the present invention includes providing the abovedescribed multilevel building structure with plural floors, and vehiclemovers; parking inbound vehicles in reception parking spaces 22 on theentry-exit floor 20 of the building structure 10; loading the inboundvehicles 30 onto inbound movers 40; moving the elevator 50 to theentry-exit floor 20; loading the loaded inbound movers 40 into elevatorspaces 52 on the elevator 50; moving the elevator incrementally to thestorage floors 60 for matching the inbound vehicles 30 with vacantstorage spaces 22 on the storage floors 60; discharging the inboundmovers 40 to the storage floors 60 and unloading the inbound vehicles 30into the vacant storage spaces 22; loading all vacated elevator spaces52 with outbound movers 40 carrying outbound vehicles 30 from thestorage floors 60; moving the elevator 50, to complete oneinbound-outbound cycle, finally, to the entry-exit floor 20 anddischarging the outbound movers 40; unloading the outbound vehicles 30to discharge parking spaces 22 on the entry-exit floor 20 to awaitpossession by patrons; and repeating this procedure cyclically asrequired.

[0029] The method includes loading plural inbound movers 40 ontoopposing sides 50′ of the elevator 50 simultaneously while unloadingplural outbound movers 40 from a further opposing sides, the alternatetwo sides 50″ of the elevator as shown in FIG. 2.

[0030] The method further comprises sensing when one of the parkingspaces 22 is vacated, using any type of sensor 28, such as magnetic,inductive, etc. as is well known in the art, and lighting a lamp 25adjacent to the space 22, to indicate status. The lamp 25 is preferablyplaced so as to be visible from the elevator.

[0031] The method further comprises the step of signaling a controlboard 29 on the entry-exit floor 20, so that the control board 29indicates locations of vacant parking spaces 22 in the buildingstructure. Such a control and signaling system is well known in the art.

[0032] While the invention has been described with reference to at leastone preferred embodiment, it is to be clearly understood by thoseskilled in the art that the invention is not limited thereto. Rather,the scope of the invention is to be interpreted only in conjunction withthe appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A vehicle parking facility apparatus comprising:a multilevel building structure with plural floors for parking pluralmotor vehicles, including at least one entry-exit floor having vehiclereception and dispatch parking spaces, for receiving vehicles movinginto and out of the building structure; a plurality of vehicle movers,each of the vehicle movers adapted for supporting and moving one of thevehicles along the floors of the building structure to and from parkingspaces designated therefor; at least one elevator of a size forreceiving plural of the vehicle movers in abreast formation along eachof four sides thereof; the elevator thereby adapted for moving thevehicles between the entry-exit floor to parking spaces on the floors ofthe building structure; and an automated guidance system for directingthe vehicle movers automatically, with or without personnel attention,between the parking spaces and the elevator.
 2. A vehicle parking methodcomprising the steps of: a) providing a multilevel building structurewith plural floors, including an entry-exit floor with reception anddischarge parking spaces, and storage floors with storage parking spacesfor parking plural inbound motor vehicles; and an elevator havingelevator spaces, the elevator adapted for moving between the floors ofthe building structure, and a plurality of inbound and outbound vehiclemovers, each of the movers adapted for supporting and moving one of thevehicles between the floors of the building structure using theelevator; b) parking inbound vehicles in reception parking spaces on theentry-exit floor of the building structure; c) loading the inboundvehicles onto inbound movers; d) moving the elevator to the entry-exitfloor of the building structure; e) loading the loaded inbound moversinto said elevator spaces on the elevator; f) moving the elevatorincrementally to the storage floors of the building structure formatching the inbound vehicles with vacant storage spaces on the storagefloors; g) discharging inbound movers to the storage floors andunloading the inbound vehicles into the vacant storage spaces; h)loading all vacated elevator spaces with outbound movers carryingoutbound vehicles from the storage floors; i) moving the elevator, tocomplete one inbound-outbound cycle, finally, to the entry-exit floorand discharging the outbound movers; j) unloading the outbound vehiclesto discharge parking spaces on the entry-exit floor to await possessionby patrons; and k) repeating steps (b) through (j) cyclically.
 3. Themethod of claim 2 wherein plural inbound movers are loaded onto opposingsides of the elevator simultaneously with unloading plural outboundmovers from a further opposing sides of the elevator.
 4. The method ofclaim 2 further comprising the step of sensing when one of the parkingspaces is vacated and lighting a lamp to indicate said status, the lampplaced so as to be visible from the elevator.
 5. The method of claim 4further comprising the step of signaling a control board on theentry-exit floor, the control board indicating locations of vacantparking spaces in the building structure.